THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 6, 1994 TAG: 9409060066
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY WARREN FISKE, DAVID M. POOLE AND GREG SCHNEIDER, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Long : 202 lines
Labor Day is more than the beginning of the fall political season in Virginia.
It is the day when candidates for statewide office - who usually campaign via television sound bites and 30-second commercials - harken back to an era when politicians rode in small-town parades and made speeches under picnic shelters.
This nostalgia has come to life for the last 24 years in Buena Vista, a struggling manufacturing town that sits hard between the Maury River and the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Monday, three of the four candidates in the race for U.S. Senate strutted their stuff down Magnolia Avenue along with sequined beauty queens, Smokey Bear, aging American Legionnaires and the Parry McCluer High School Marching Blues.
Former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder stayed home, but incumbent Democrat Charles S. Robb, GOP nominee Oliver L. North and independent candidate J. Marshall Coleman all provided a glimpse of the styles that they will bring to the next 63 days of campaigning.
For North, it was the kind of day most politicians dream about.
About 250 Buena Vista residents started their morning by attending a breakfast for North at American Legion Post 126. North, in khakis and a blue dress shirt with an open collar, was greeted outside by more than a dozen cadets in full uniform from Virginia Military In-sti-tute.
``He's a great American,'' said Jason Harding, a freshman at VMI who was among the first to shake North's hand. ``I believe the things he believes in. He'll protect our families, the Second Amendment, and he'll keep women out of VMI.''
At the breakfast, North pressed his attack on Democrat Robb's character. North suggested that the questions of integrity he faces because of his role in the Iran-Contra affair pale in comparison to Robb's alleged infidelities when he was governor in the early 1980s.
``There will be a lot of folks . . . who want to raise as moral equivalency what I did as a flawed human being to save human lives and the repeated behavior of other candidates,'' North told the crowd.
North later explained: ``My motives (in Iran-Contra) were always to save the lives of other people. You'll have to ask my opponent what his motive was.''
Before the parade, North ducked into a local high school to change into a blue flannel shirt. He rolled up the sleeves. His media consultant, Michael Murphy, wired him with a microphone and had a cameraman present to record North's every step. The all-American footage of North parading in a small town is sure to work its way into future television commercials, Murphy said.
Unlike Robb, North turned down the opportunity to be driven in an antique car and walked the parade route. Behind him were several dozen sign-toting supporters and a group of uniformed police who are backing North. When fans on the sidewalk shouted to him, North walked over to shake their hands. ``Time for a change in government,'' he said, giving a thumbs-up sign and a broad smile.
Andrew Maisano, a retired local businessman who had his foot amputated last winter, hobbled onto the street with a cane to walk a block with North. North put his arm around him. ``He's a great leader,'' Maisano said of North.
There were a few protesters in the crowd. Jon Nafziger, a local child-care administrator, marched alongside North bearing a protest sign accusing the Republican of ``shredding the Constitution.'' North never seemed to notice him.
The next stop was Scottsville, a hamlet about 20 miles south of Charlottesville that was celebrating its 250th anniversary. North was greeted by about 200 people by the gas pumps at a local Citgo station.
North spent an hour shaking hands, signing autographs and posing for pictures. Eventually, he ran out of paper for signatures and bumper stickers to pass out.
He was joined in Scottsville by Gov. George F. Allen. The two delivered stump speeches from the bed of a pickup. ``We need warriors like Ollie North in Washington who will fight for the people,'' Allen said.
North accused Robb of being a ``liberal extremist.'' He mocked the record of all three of his opponents. ``If there records are so doggone good, wouldn't our taxes be lower, and wouldn't our nation's defense be stronger?'' he asked.
Scottsville Mayor Raymond Thacker acknowledged that there was a pretty good crowd on hand. ``But I don't think everyone was here just to see Oliver North,'' he said. ``You've got to remember that our town's 250th birthday is a big deal out here.''
Chuck Robb launched his re-election bid in the same way he began his three previous successful runs for statewide office - by climbing into the back of a red 1950 Ford convertible for a Labor Day cruise down the pickup-lined streets of Buena Vista.
While the wheels and setting were familiar, there were signs that the Democrat was venturing onto uncharted territory.
Magnolia Avenue was lined with children sporting blue ``North 94'' bumper stickers that had been dispensed with military efficiency by Republican volunteers. No one was handing out Robb stickers.
Another reminder of a rising GOP tide was that the annual Democrat breakfast at Southern Virginia College for Women drew 125 people, about half the number who attended a Republican breakfast down the hill at the National Guard Armory.
Still, Robb appeared upbeat as he climbed into the convertible, slipped off his Gucci loafers and settled in next to his wife, Lynda Johnson Robb. The parade organizers placed the Robbs between Smokey Bear and the Miss Rockbridge Fair Queen. North was up ahead, walking and shaking hands with clumps of working-class people who lined the streets.
The Robbs stuck to their perch as they called out greetings. The reaction was warmer than suggested by the profusion of North stickers.
``Go get 'em, Senator.''
``Show them which way North is!''
``We love you. We're pushing for you all the way.''
``North is the wrong direction.''
``Hope you win. Hey there, Lynda.''
While the parade offered no opportunity to debate issues, the earlier Democrat breakfast gave Robb supporters a chance to blast North for criminal convictions stemming from his role in the Iran-Contra scandal. An appeals court later overturned the convictions.
``The people of Virginia want a candidate with strong convictions, not a candidate with a history of convictions,'' said Mark Warner, state Democratic Party chairman.
``We have one (candidate) who makes laws and one who breaks laws, and we don't need the one who breaks laws to be making the laws,'' said state Sen. Frank W. Nolen, D-Augusta County.
At the end of the parade, Robb avoiding sharing the stage with North at Glen Maury Park. Instead, the senator jumped in a van and sped to Covington, a paper mill town about 35 miles to the west.
Robb arrived a few minutes late for a Covington parade sponsored by the local paperworkers union, but he managed to jog a few blocks of the route.
North supporters, led by anti-abortion advocates, did an even better job of showing the GOP flag in Covington. They handed out 1,000 blue balloons, 200 bumper stickers and several spools of North lapel stickers.
Del. R. Creigh Deeds, a Warm Springs Democrat, acknowledged that he was taken aback by the North showing at a labor union event - not usually a good backdrop for Republicans. ``It was depressing,'' Deeds said, ``going through the town there throwing candy at this army of blue.''
Marshall Coleman left home in Northern Virginia at 5:45 a.m., stopped at Roy Rogers for a bite and headed down the road with his wife and his campaign assistant.
All the while, campaign rivals Robb and North were already in Buena Vista, hosting $25-a-couple and $15-a-person fund-raising breakfasts for scores of supporters.
At the staging area for the parade, Coleman shucked his gray pin-striped suit jacket and waited. A handful of reporters stopped by for quotes.
S. Vance Wilkins Jr., minority leader of the House of Delegates and a Republican from Amherst County, steered wide of his former partymate. ``Who do you see up there talking to him, except reporters?'' Wilkins said. ``Look what he's got and look what North's gonna have when he goes through.''
At that moment, North - looking like an ad for The Gap in his casual attire - was being mobbed by a throng of well-wishers and autograph-seekers. Coleman, a few yards away, was chatting with his wife and assistant.
Coleman said he expected to be a wallflower at this event, even though he used to represent an area including Buena Vista in the state Senate.
``It's clear (North) is a celebrity,'' Coleman said. ``But I don't think celebrity is a substitute for character, and I don't think celebrity is going to elect him.''
The former state attorney general seemed loose and wry in his role as the lonely underdog. Approached by a nattily dressed television reporter, Coleman grabbed the man's lapels and demanded, ``Is this your suit or did they just loan it to you?''
Wading into a crowd of cheerleaders from the local Parry McCluer High School, Coleman quizzed them all and then announced, ``I'm happy to report not a single one of 'em wants to be a politician or a reporter.''
With North leading a swarm of sign-wielding fans and Robb perched picturesquely on the back of a vintage Ford, Coleman ambled along next to his wife and local supporter Ralph Hamlett. Hamlett's son Jake and nephew Cliff carried a Coleman banner. And that was it for the Coleman delegation.
He might as well have been Rodney Dangerfield all morning. Brenda Rose of the town of Goshen rushed breathlessly up and asked for two autographs for her daughters. ``They're collecting them,'' she explained.
Coleman was happy to oblige, but when Hamlett offered Rose a sticker, she drew back. ``I won't wear it,'' she said. ``It wouldn't exactly go with the others.'' She had a shirt full of North stickers.
At the end of the parade, Coleman and North hung around to give speeches while Robb motored to another event. North's speech was greeted by a long standing ovation and punctuated by cheers and applause. When he finished, at least a third of the crowd left with him. When Coleman was introduced to his former constituents, there was a pause before the crowd delivered light applause.
The only other event on Coleman's schedule was a Labor Day celebration in Clifton Forge, about 45 minutes away, staged by the United Paperworkers International Union.
There, finally, Coleman got an endorsement. Sort of. Arnold E. Brown, the union's regional director, told a sparse crowd that Republicans were terrible on all the issues important to labor.
``But if you got to vote for a Republican,'' Brown said, ``I ask you to vote for Marshall Coleman.''
Coleman stood up, waved his arms, and his wife led the crowd in a round of applause. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by Don Petersen, Landmark News Service
J. Marshall Coleman walks the Labor Day parade route in Buena Vista
with his wife, Patty. He appeared loose and wry as he played up his
role as underdog in the Senate race.
L. Douglas Wilder made no campaign appearances Monday. Instead, he
prepared for tonight's debate at Hampden-Sydney College, which will
be shown on C-Span at 8 p.m.
Above: Oliver L. North walks the parade route after supporters
saturated the crowd with campaign buttons and bumper stickers.
Left: Sen. Charles S. Robb rides in a 1950 Ford with his wife,
Lynda, like he did in his past successful statewide campaigns.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE CANDIDATE CAMPAIGN by CNB